Being Aware Of Thoughts

[Teags]

I have been meditating for 20 minutes a day for about 6 weeks now. I have previously done meditation for a month here and there as well. What I am struggling with is being aware of my thoughts as they are happening. I find I can only be 'remember' them and not actually watch them as they are happening. Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone have a solution? Thanks  

[Lorcan]

Today is my second day of 20 minute meditation lol.

I dont know the answer to your question.

I guess you will find an answer in time

 

[SkyPanther]

1 hour ago, Teags said:

I have been meditating for 20 minutes a day for about 6 weeks now. I have previously done meditation for a month here and there as well. What I am struggling with is being aware of my thoughts as they are happening. I find I can only be 'remember' them and not actually watch them as they are happening. Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone have a solution? Thanks  

It does not really matter how long it takes to be aware that you are thinking, but as soon as you do notice, you release the thought (do not push it away), and go back to your object of focus .

If you stray 50 times and go back 50 times, it was a successful meditation. Do not get angry for losing focus (because the anger is ego), just notice it, release it, and go back to your focus.

 

There is a good guide here as well:

http://www.dhammasukha.org/uploads/1/2/8/6/12865490/mindfulness.pdf

I have been doing this practice and it has helped me greatly,it can also be applied to any style. 

 

Edited April 1, 2016 by SkyPanther

[Nic]

2 hours ago, Teags said:

What I am struggling with is being aware of my thoughts as they are happening. I find I can only be 'remember' them and not actually watch them as they are happening. Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone have a solution? Thanks  

How to awake from the dream or how to notice that you are being unconscious earlier is how I understand your question... if you remember thoughts you are still caught in thoughts.  There is nothing you can do about it but to practice & practice. The good news is, you don't have to seat down for this. Remind yourself in your daily life as often as possible "Hey who is thinking now?" and let go of the thought.

You can choose to let go of it or.... you can make a little funny computer game in your head, you being awareness, thoughts being some bad cowboys or indians or zombies that you want to get rid of. Pick your weapon of choice, punch, gun, hand grenade, atomic bomb, or a simple kiss, get your enemy and watch until ones comes by... be the stillness, you are the stealthy, invisible hunter waiting that doesn't even exits. If you forget about the game, it's ok. Insert coin, start again.

I know what some could say that this is not complete stillness, it's another layer and all. I'd say it's depending on how well you play that game.

What I actually do when I notice I'm in the dream. I just say "thinking think thinking" There is no judgment in that. 

You can also "be aware" of something useful, this meditation is working so well for me, try it out, it's really good for health as well:

The microcosmic orbit meditation:

 

 

 

It might not be the best video about it, so you might consider getting more information about this one! Totally worth it! My ego truly hates this one. 

[ImDANiEL]

10 hours ago, Teags said:

I have been meditating for 20 minutes a day for about 6 weeks now. I have previously done meditation for a month here and there as well. What I am struggling with is being aware of my thoughts as they are happening. I find I can only be 'remember' them and not actually watch them as they are happening. Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone have a solution? Thanks  

Teaga, I have been meditating for over 40 years and still haven't mastered it, so don't think you are not 'doing it properly', however, I don't focus on anything in particular, in fact, I would have to admit that I don't focus on a 'thing' or 'no-thing', I actually found it most enjoyable when I visualize the Universe (for lack of a better name) to be my audience and I speak to the Universe as I would if I were able to speak to an assembly of people. 

Perhaps this is not orthodox, but, since I never read about meditation I only practiced it as best as I was able to in the conceptions of my 'mind', however, this has certainly brought me out of Panic Attacks (completely gone) and debilitating anxieties. If there is a hell, Panic Attacks may be the 'grandaddy' of them all. 

However, if you are able to find you 'center' the 'heart/soul' of your being, this is not hard as it sounds, just look inside it is always there, and project yourself outward to the known Universe (as a start), you may receive a sense of endlessness which would signify that you are now projecting yourself beyond the confines of the 'body/ego', this will probably cause a reaction, even if it is 'fear', do not retreat unless you 'feel' a need to. I have found this method to be most enlightening as well as invigorating, yet, please, if you 'feel' uncomfortable doing such, leave it, don't continue until you are able to find a way to address any uncomfortableness in such things, I, personally, don't see any reason to be uncomfortable, but, I am not a professional and am only giving you a possible way to meditate according to 'me', which, obviously does not exist. 

 

[askdfjnak]

@Teags Allow everything to be as it is.

Then the mind wont really have a problem to solve.

It will slow down a lot.

Then being aware of thoughts as they are happening will be completely natural. You won't have to "try" to watch thoughts.

This might not happen immediately, but it happens.

 

 

[Leo Gura]

It takes lot of time. I've been meditating for over an hour every day for the last 1000 days and it's still hard to maintain mindfulness over thoughts. Thoughts are very very very very tricky. You're so identified with thoughts that they literally feel like "YOU", so you have no distance from them, so you cannot be aware of them too well.

Keep practicing.

A helpful exercise is to specifically focus on determining what thoughts actually are.

Try meditating while holding the question: "What is a thought?"

Don't think the answer. Use awareness only.

[Denis]

You can also try and ask yourself "I wonder what my next thought is going to be".  It kind of helps me observe thoughts as they come.  Now I still get seduced by some thoughts by do become aware of it quickly.  Like Leo says it takes practice.

[Emerald]

On April 1, 2016 at 5:24 PM, Teags said:

I have been meditating for 20 minutes a day for about 6 weeks now. I have previously done meditation for a month here and there as well. What I am struggling with is being aware of my thoughts as they are happening. I find I can only be 'remember' them and not actually watch them as they are happening. Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone have a solution? Thanks  

There is no solution to this problem. You can try to increase your sensitivity and awareness to the thoughts that come up (and you should) but this can only ever take you so far. Just notice the not noticing as a phenomenon. Don't judge and say "I should be realizing when the thoughts come up" or something of that nature. This takes for granted that noticing the thought as it comes is a possibility. 

The reason why you can never be aware of thoughts as they arise in the present moment, is because the present moment doesn't actually exist. By the time you've realized something (whether it be a thought, sight, sound, smell, taste, or sensation) it is already in the past. So, the present moment doesn't exist. All the present moment is is a mental projection of the past. So, the present moment is the past. The past is a thought story. Thoughts are the past.

So, being aware of a thought can never occur in the present moment because thoughts can only be accessed through memory. 

[askdfjnak]

4 hours ago, Emerald Wilkins said:

So, the present moment doesn't exist. All the present moment is is a mental projection of the past. So, the present moment is the past. The past is a thought story. Thoughts are the past.

So, being aware of a thought can never occur in the present moment because thoughts can only be accessed through memory. 

Close, but not entirely correct.

The present moment doesn't exist to the mind  but it does to awareness.

You cannot talk to yourself in the present moment (this is 99% of thinking) but you can definitely be aware of thought in the present moment.

If you think about it  the only way that it is possible for you to talk to yourself is if each new thought draws meaning from the previous thought i.e. each present thought talks to a past thought. This duality is necessary for "you" to talk to "yourself". This is why the present moment doesn't exist to the mind, because it is caught in this limbo between new and old thought.

If you become awareness you shut this process down because you become completely present. Each thought that appears in front of awareness becomes completely inert and meaningless because it cannot draw meaning from previous thoughts. Like one hand clapping.

So you cannot "think" (string together many thoughts) in the present but you can watch a thought from the preset.

It took me hundreds of hours of meditating to realize this.

[Emerald]

2 hours ago, Mutupo said:

Close, but not entirely correct.

The present moment doesn't exist to the mind  but it does to awareness.

You cannot talk to yourself in the present moment (this is 99% of thinking) but you can definitely be aware of thought in the present moment.

If you think about it  the only way that it is possible for you to talk to yourself is if each new thought draws meaning from the previous thought i.e. each present thought talks to a past thought. This duality is necessary for "you" to talk to "yourself". This is why the present moment doesn't exist to the mind, because it is caught in this limbo between new and old thought.

If you become awareness you shut this process down because you become completely present. Each thought that appears in front of awareness becomes completely inert and meaningless because it cannot draw meaning from previous thoughts. Like one hand clapping.

So you cannot "think" (string together many thoughts) in the present but you can watch a thought from the preset.

It took me hundreds of hours of meditating to realize this.

In a way, this is true. But try focusing on the present moment now. You'll find that no matter how precisely you try to train your awareness to the present moment, you still can't quite get it because a moment involves time and time doesn't exist. So, the present moment comes directly after past awareness and directly before future awareness. Because past and future are only thought stories, the present moment occurs in the infinitely small (and infinitely large) empty space in between those two thought stories. You can't focus your attention on one "frame" of awareness. Once you get the present moment, it will always be the memory of a past moment. So, the present moment doesn't exist only a series of memories of past moments. This is why Maya is an illusion. All you have of reality is the present moment, and that present moment truly doesn't exist. It's all a projection. 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Emerald Wilkins

[askdfjnak]

19 minutes ago, Emerald Wilkins said:

But try focusing on the present moment now. You'll find that no matter how precisely you try to train your awareness to the present moment, you still can't quite get it

Yes, because you are creating a false "you" who is then going to "train awareness" onto a moment that has now long since past. This is impossible.

There is no past awareness, future awareness, present awareness - this is the mind. Awareness is always now in the absolute sense.

Awareness cannot be trained onto moments, it is now. The mind can be trained onto ideas of moments, but no idea of the moment is the moment.

It is against awareness that time is experienced. The word "present" doesn't do it justice. It's before the present in a "super" way, not a "past" way.

A person/mind cannot grasp the present. But there is the present awareness.

I guess this is one of those incommunicable things.

[Gmork]

@Mutupo Universe is not present. There is no now in it. Its all about our consciousness perspective. So we can be in present. You idea is   'human' and wronged by 'time'. What you get every second is what IS. We all can chose (and most do) to not live in that experience and instead live in 'future' and 'past'.

[SkyPanther]

7 hours ago, Nickfury7 said:

@SkyPanther so is noticing releasing?

No, noticing is basically the awareness spotlighting that you are not on your object.   Releasing is dropping a thought, feeling, etc, in mid thought, and focusing back on the object of meditation. You are not pushing the thought/feeling away, you are letting it be and moving your awareness back to the object. 

[Azrael]

On 1.4.2016 at 11:24 PM, Teags said:

What I am struggling with is being aware of my thoughts as they are happening. I find I can only be 'remember' them and not actually watch them as they are happening. Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone have a solution?

The first time I was able to experience my thoughts in real time, meaning that a thought comes by and I have not the sensation of actually saying that thought sub-vocally but just watching it, needed a good year of every day meditation, lot's of one hour strong determination sits and so on. This is not as easy to achieve right away. You'll need to build the awareness first and this takes some work. Just go on.

Even now, I sometimes experience it and other times (most of the time) I'm still completely identified.

[appleaurorae]

Frankly, that's how my every meditation starts: a giant amount of flying thoughts. Solution? Don't feed them. These threads will just discharge when you stop powering them. Just be as much ignorant as you can. And don't push them away. Let them be until they vanish, keep being patient. Don't get angry about it, don't force it.

[Ramu]

On 4/1/2016 at 5:24 PM, Teags said:

I have been meditating for 20 minutes a day for about 6 weeks now. I have previously done meditation for a month here and there as well. What I am struggling with is being aware of my thoughts as they are happening. I find I can only be 'remember' them and not actually watch them as they are happening. Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone have a solution? Thanks  

I find that focusing on inhale and exhale extinguishes thought.  I've also discovered that it has a residual effect with popcorn maker mind.

[Khin]

@Teags According to my research, I found out that without the self research with curiosity you will not be able to see thoughts as it happens. Lille Leo said, Truely not knowing.

To be at truely not knowing stage, we must ask ourself like which is ME?

[wong chee kwan]

From my experience, you are doing wonderfully well.

Not picking up the "live" thoughts means that the thinking process is spontaneous instead of conscious.

A spontaneous thinking process produces  justified thoughts; meaning that they are real and not emotional. Whereas, a conscious thought is mostly tainted with emotions, and thus unreal.

The subsequent "remembered" thought is a recalled justified-thought; and thus believable.

The mind has to be justified first before calmness can descend.

So, keep going and you will be there sooner than you thought possible.

Edited April 19, 2016 by wong chee kwan

[Khin]

@Teags how about try other sensations instead of thoughts. Like hearing or seeing. Just grab and hold the sense. Obviously you can't but just notice the new senses. It will first feel like remembering but you'll get to it with practice. Don't look back on one sense for too long. Move on to other senses.